Some time very early in our marriage (or perhaps even before we got married, I can't remember now, it's been over 11 years) we had a long-term plan.
Very long-term, stretching a good part of 25 years or so.
It was detailed, too, with things like exactly when we'd buy our first house, have our first child, have our second child. . .
There was no third child in that plan!
And certainly no fourth child!
There was probably a trip to Paris and Hawaii in there, but definitely not to Ethiopia.
And adopting a child from Ethiopia? Would have been unfathomable to us eleven years ago!
My husband had in the plan one of the two of our hypothetical children getting a full scholarship to college (wishful thinking!), which helped the finances look a little prettier.
Then as life happened, which it always does, I think the plan evolved into more of a 5 year plan.
And as we more and more let go of our plans and began to earnestly seek God's plans for our lives, even the 5 year plan melted away!
And now?
I don't think there is even a 1 year plan!
We pretty much have no idea!
When we went to get our travel shots a few weeks ago the doctor talked about a certain vaccine we wouldn't need just for the 2 one week long trips that were on the agenda, but we'd need if we planned to spend any large amounts of time in Ethiopia in the next 10 years. I looked to my husband questioningly and he nodded that absolutely we should get the extra shot, so that when it's time for us to go be missionaries in Africa we'll be all ready to go!
So now instead of intricately planning our our lives, we are praying to "live a life worthy of the calling we have received." Eph. 4:1
But, the amazing thing to me is that as God has changed our plans, He also changed our desires. Things we wanted for our life eleven years ago not only don't matter anymore, but are actually things we don't want now!
God changes hearts and replaces earthly desires with heavenly ones. That helps to explain lines like this one from the Steve Camp song, "Run to the Battle": "Some people want to live within the sounds of chapel bells, but I want to run a mission a yard from the gates of Hell."
What a wonderful post. I can honestly tell you for some reason my hubby and I were never into long term plans. We pretty much have flown by the seat of our pants, haha...Sometimes I think some better long term planning would have helped, but I can tell you it has made us look to Him more and more. I LOVE your plans. Have a good day...HUGS!
ReplyDeleteMy wife read this post and forwarded the link to me to read it. We could have posted this ourselves! We often hear that "God has a wonderful plan for our lives". And this is a fine and happy thought. But why does everyone just assume that this means that God is going to just rubber stamp the American dream we already had planned? God becomes like an accessory to a car that we have already bought. But it needs to be His car, and He needs to be the Driver, and we are simply along for the ride. God bless you both! I don't know if you have support in your local church for what you are doing, but we are standing behind you as you truly follow the Lord. Right now we are leaning towards mission work in Colombia - even though many things will have to fall together for this to actually happen. But somehow we have this "sense of knowing" that we will eventually end up there. It is very thrilling to be manipulated by the Master Manipulator!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDelete31 years of marriage and 6 kids myself- and we have never had much of a plan. The plans we did have always ended up changing - I think life is too much of an adventure to try and plan everything out!